Hearts and Scribbles
by Unyielding Wish
Summary: Saint Valentine's Day is coming, and Iroha doesn't have anything to offer her best friend. To add on that, her temper is getting a little unbalanced lately. シろは/Shiroha
1. hearts and scribbles - one

**Hearts and Scribbles  
[One]**

.

_As if some little Arctic flower,  
upon the polar hem  
Went wandering down the latitudes  
until it puzzled came  
to continents of summer_—  
_to firmaments of sun_—  
_to strange, bright crowds of flowers,  
and birds of foreign tongue!  
I say, as if this little flower  
To Eden wandered in—  
What then? why, nothing, only  
Your inference therefrom!_ – Emily Dickinson

**-/-**

Saint Valentine's Day of 2013 came with bursts of glowing pink and red ribbons and lacy hearts. Really, that was just for the lower, elementary grades, but that didn't mean that the teachers of Bokaroido***** High didn't try to hammer the memory of Saint Valentine into their pupils' heads.

So that was what the teachers did, except they never really got their students to make anything for Valentine's Day. By the time February came, the high school's hallways were abuzz with excitement, so the teachers just decided to encourage it.

Really, it was not a problem. The girls whose hearts had been broken before Valentine's Day didn't complain; they dutifully cut out hearts for family members and friends, or otherwise didn't show up to class, particularly art class. The guys still walked with the same step, as if the fancy holiday hadn't bothered them a bit, although as a Student Council member, Iroha Nekomura could easily see that many were swayed by it. Some often stopped by the room reserved for Student Council to buy carnations.

_Carnations…_

Last year, it was candy grams, and the year before, self-made cards. Whatever year it was, Student Council always managed to think up something that was slightly different from the year before but still pertaining to the Valentine's Day theme.

There were two types of carnations. White meant "I like you," or otherwise friendship, and pink meant "I love you" or "We are bound together." There were blank paper cards to go with the carnations as well. Each carnation, regardless of color, was one dollar each. Student Council members got one carnation free, and the leftovers if there were any.

From the way the sales were going, the school would be rich and there would be hardly a petal left, Iroha observed wryly.

The bell that marked the end of school had just rung, and a flurry of activity was going all around her. It was the twelfth of February, Tuesday, the second-to-last day to cram all Valentines in before the actual day. Student Council was expecting a bunch of sales.

The green door was pushed open slightly, and as Iroha entered, the familiar smell of rusted iron and oily paint welcomed her in. The President of Student Council had already set out everything on the tables. Iroha slipped her bag onto the back of her metal chair, and sat down to wait.

Personally, she was panicking. This year, carnations were too clichéd, and she didn't want to use anything from the past, either. Iroha was looking for something to offer to her best friend, SeeU.

It was childish, yes. But Valentine's Day meant optimism and love and happy-go-lucky and all that, and for once, tsundere Iroha wanted to get in the mood.

Although SeeU always waited by the bicycle racks, doing her homework to pass the time, after school for an hour—or however long Iroha might take—to bike home together, she adamantly refused to come in and help. SeeU claimed that she didn't like carnations, although Iroha suspected that it might be something else. SeeU was a popular target for the males to tease, and they often taunted her that she was a homosexual, that she was having an affair with Iroha…

"Evaluating something troubling, Iroha?" President Aomori Miki said sympathetically, dropping into a chair next to Iroha. The girl gave a start.

"The sales haven't begun yet?" was Iroha's way of a reply.

Miki shook her head. "They will, though. There's five more minutes. We're waiting for the rest of Student Council to come."

Miki was everything that Iroha wanted to be. Polite and firm but always willing to strike up a casual conversation. Her appearance was perfect, too: glossy red hair with energetic ruby eyes, and a slim, wiry figure.

Still, Miki was a little stiff for Iroha's liking. Iroha could never imagine Miki laughing out loud or even giggling; it was always a chuckle. She wanted to have a friend who would be perverted with her, who would have an obsession over the stupidest things… and SeeU fit exactly into the category.

"Iroha?" Miki placed a hand on said girl's arm.

Iroha nodded. "I'm fine." She really was. If she wasn't, she would be.

-/-

"Hi, Ironeko!" SeeU said brightly, looking up from her notebook and capping her pen. She sat crosslegged on the ground, with her backpack beside her, and papers strewn all around her. Rocks served as paperweights against the windy gray sky, which may launch a gale if it wished. "Ironeko" was SeeU's nickname for Iroha, a mixture of Iroha's first and last name. Upon Iroha's arrival, SeeU began to stuff papers back into her backpack.

"Need a hand?" Iroha offered, and not waiting for a reply, she bent down to help SeeU straighten out her homework.

"Sorry," SeeU said apologetically. "Your Valentine's Day sale lasted longer than usual, so I got a little immersed in the life of Genghis Khan. You can see… I took copious notes on him, but then, I'll be ready for the test!"

Iroha winced. "Yeah."

"Why, Ironeko? Do you not like him? Well, he was a pretty odd guy, but…"

"The test," Iroha said, "is _tomorrow_, SeeU."

"Of course! That's why I'm studying for it."

Iroha went into the bikes' rack and unhooked her bicycle. "You didn't study before?"

"Well," SeeU replied exasperatedly, following her into the little fenced-off area, "I _have_ to, don't I? My grades are going to slip if I don't. The three question tests that our history teacher gives, they're going to mark the end of me, someday."

Iroha laughed. "Oh sure. You're much better than me at studying, SeeU."

"And yet you were the one who got into Student Council." SeeU swung her backpack onto her bicycle's handles, and grinned over her shoulder. "I'll race you to where the lane forks."

"Okay," Iroha replied, as lightheartedly as she could.

-/-

SeeU brushed a chunk of blonde hair out of her face. Biking down and up swells and crests in the earth in the sharp February air had given both of them a great exercise. Still, SeeU magically pulled ahead—like always.

"I win!"

"I lose," Iroha sighed automatically.

"I can lose if you want me to," SeeU suggested, not realizing that Iroha always lost because usually when Iroha biked, she contemplated her life, or thought about things that would slow her down.

"It's okay. See you tomorrow, SeeU!" And they split ways.

-/-

The screen glowed blue. Iroha blinked her tired eyes, reloading her page over and over to see if she had any new emails.

None.

She had sent out an email to her fellow Student Council members earlier, asking about ideas for a Valentine, but none replied.

She was irritable and annoyed. Once the night passed, there would be only one day left to get SeeU a Valentine, and if she knew anything, it was that she had close to no time to make a Valentine by hand.

Earlier, Iroha and SeeU were chatting on Gmail, but since Iroha often was distracted while chatting, SeeU had to cope with her involuntary bursts of silence quite often. SeeU was probably miffed by that, and Iroha's replies to SeeU's torrent of news and chatter were probably in the range in which it sound like she snapped.

In all of the years Iroha knew SeeU, the former had never failed to give SeeU a Valentine, and the latter had never failed to return the favor.

Iroha was determined to keep the tradition. But perhaps this year… this year, it might change.

She didn't want that.

* * *

***Bokaroido**** （ボカロイド）— **"_Vocaloid"_


	2. hearts and scribbles - two

**Hearts and Scribbles  
[Two]**

.

_Two roads diverged in yellow wood,…  
And be one traveler, long I stood  
And looked down one as far as I could,… _

_Then took the other, just as fair  
And having perhaps the better claim,  
because it was grassy and wanted wear;  
Though as for passing there,  
Had worn them really about the same;_

_And both that morning equally lay  
in leaves no step had trodden black…  
I doubted, if I should ever come back._

_I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence;  
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—  
I took the one less traveled by,  
and that has made all the difference. _ – Robert Frost

**-/-**

The first thing Iroha did the next morning was to flip open her phone to check for new mail.

None.

She made a sound of frustration, before dressing, brushing her teeth, and heading downstairs for breakfast.

Iroha and SeeU met each other, as usual, at the fork in the road. SeeU didn't seem to be the least affected by Iroha's messages last night, although she was a little hesitant at accepting Iroha's apology.

Iroha's mind was on something else, so her "apology" was probably not as profound as it should have been, but to her, it was good enough.

"So," SeeU finally said, seemingly eager to make conversation, "are you looking forward to the big history three-question test on Genghis Khan today?"

"_No._"

"I figured as well." She sighed. "But Genghis Khan is actually kind of interesting. I did more studies on him… I think I'm ready to write a report on him now. Iroha." SeeU turned to Iroha, who was previously zoning out. "Are you listening?"

"Yeah…"

-/-

Iroha had three classes with SeeU. One was homeroom, one was history (third period), and one was math (sixth and last period). For homeroom, which was first period, Iroha and SeeU were positioned fairly far away from each other, so they couldn't talk or pass notes without having a minimum of two people in their way. They sat next to each other in the middle of the second row in history, and were in the same row but far away from each other in math.

And it was history class at the moment.

Miss Suzune had a scary smile on her face when she told everybody to put away their books and take out their notebooks for the quiz and the test. The class emitted three long groans in succession.

"Nobody told us that we'd have a _pop quiz_ right before the test," complained a classmate who was a Student Council representative, Albert Eberhardt—otherwise known as Big Al.

"That's why it's called a _pop quiz_, Albert," Miss Suzune quipped sarcastically. "Now, class, for the quiz _and_ the test, you may use your notebooks. The quiz is ten questions long, but each question is one that makes you think, and each question would be worth five points. The test will be one of my signature tests, three questions worth ten points each. You may come up to take the test after you've finished the quiz."

At least that was better than three questions each worth one point, which she sometimes issued, and were beyond difficult as she questioned them on the most obscure points ever.

"What if you don't finish the quiz or the test before the period ends?" called out another student—Miku, was it?

"Then too bad for you, isn't it?" replied Miss Suzune, still grinning scarily, and Miku gulped.

Iroha glanced down at her quiz. The questions weren't hard, contrary of what Miss Suzune constantly led them to believe; they were only tricky. She used a lot of language tricks, too—the _s_'s and the vocabulary.

Typically, in a test, Iroha Nekomura was serene and focused. Nothing, from the littlest thing to the biggest, could distract her. However, here, every word seemed to remind her of the Valentine that still wasn't made, and soon Iroha found herself wandering off track, and this became very apparent in her answers to the questions presented in the quiz.

_Stop it!_

She rushed through the questions, not caring for mistakes in spelling or complete sentences. And so, when Iroha ran up to Miss Suzune to turn in her quiz and get her test, she couldn't help but feel utter impatience at herself.

-/-

"I think the test is too easy, personally!" SeeU complained at once when she sat down with Iroha to eat.

"It's probably your notes," Iroha mumbled through a mouthful of food.

"Yeah but… she didn't put any of those magnificent brainteasers I strive for in her tests! It was an utter disappointment," SeeU confessed. She was one of the first to finish the quiz and test. "Although…," the girl added thoughtfully, "I'm not so sure if I got a hundred percent on the quiz. I might get some points docked off for my messy penmanship."

"Glad to know," Iroha said wryly.

"Yeah. I _should_ get full credit for what I did, though… I added extra information…"

"And people wonder why we are so different."

"Huh?" SeeU said blankly. "Never mind. Yesterday I was checking up my friends on Pottermore. You should really go onto the site! I can send you some potions to get started; I'm a whiz at those…"

Iroha really _wasn't_ interested in Pottermore. SeeU was a nice friend, but she was so annoying. Besides, Iroha was in a mood to think.

"…And then, a girl named Luka Megurine, from Hufflepuff, sent me a friend request. Of course I couldn't resist and so I accepted it. She seems like a nice person. In fact, isn't there someone named Luka Megurine in this very school?"

"Yes, there is," Iroha said robotically. Luka Megurine was the sergeant at arms in Student Council, and very active in debating. Half of Iroha's minutes consisted Luka's words.

"Oh? Is she in the same grade as us?"

"No…" Of course Luka was not a freshman at Bokaroido High. "Possibly a junior or sophomore."

"Well, I beat her at casting spells! I did a Body Bind curse, and I forget what she did; I had a higher spell-casting potency than her, though, and I earned more points for my House. I don't think she lost any for Hufflepuff, though."

Everything SeeU talked about these days were tests and Pottermore. Iroha was almost sorry to say that she missed the olden days, something she almost never talked about. SeeU was better company than Miki, of course, who was always nice and mellow, but she didn't have that engaging sparkle anymore; or if she had, SeeU had lost most of it. SeeU was enveloped in her own world, and Iroha…

"Ironeko? I—"

Iroha roughly shoved SeeU's arm away and began stuffing the remainders of her lunch back into her lunchsack, a spin-off of a knapsack. Her apple chips, uneaten, was tossed into the bag, as well as a tuna bento and some salad. She swung her lunchsack over her shoulder.

"See you around, SeeU. I'll be spending some time in the library or the Student Council room."

SeeU flinched. "For the rest of lunch?"

"Yeah. I'll be in Language Arts on time, though."

She left SeeU, who looked slightly hurt, staring after her.

-/-

"Oh! Iroha! I didn't know you'd come here." Ever-studious Luo Tianyi, who Iroha had only faint impressions of, was pushing her glasses up her nose and blinking her large owl's eyes up at the pink-haired girl. Iroha could see long, unfinished math problems looming in the papers in front of Luo Tianyi. Some of the sheets were titled "Student Council: Treasurer Work," others "Extracurricular," "Homework," or "Math for Fun". _Who does math for fun?_

"There's been a lot of carnation sales lately, so I have to keep track of them." There was a huge poster filled with charts, graphs, and whatnot.

Iroha blinked. "You keep track of them like _that_?"

Tianyi raised her eyebrows. "Yeah. It's a hobby of mine. Of course, none of the charts here are glued on, but once today is over and the morning sales of Valentine's Day pass, I'll have this poster completed. We'll hang it on the school bulletin."

Sometimes the Chinese girl got a little creepy with her calculations.

"Right."

"So, why are you here?" Tianyi asked. "Sorry; you don't normally come, so…"

"I figured you'd ask me that sometime." Iroha took a seat in a chair. "I don't know. I need inspiration for my Valentine."

"You have a boy you like?"

"It's _SeeU_, Tianyi. Not a boy."

Luo Tianyi was quiet for a moment before she nodded. "The girl who's your friend? I haven't talked to her much, but she seems pleasant."

"She is. She's just a little _annoying_, and _irks_ me sometimes, especially about _Pottermore_… I don't know. Friendship problems. They happen often." Though Iroha wasn't quite sure that Tianyi understood. The latter had once admitted to her that she wasn't very interested in making friends. "_I mean, it's fine and I like it; and I feel bubbly and happy inside with a friend—my cousins, they're my best friends. But I guess I'm just not friendship material, because people outside my family get sick of me often and move on. All I ever make is acquaintances, or otherwise shallow friendships, and I guess it'll stay that way."_

"Oh—I've heard of that website," Tianyi said presently. "It's okay, but I've never got into it. The design is a little bit much. It doesn't spam me with emails, but it slows down my computer and takes a lot of time to load."

"Yeah, yeah," Iroha said irritably. "I just…"

"Sorry."

"You don't have to be. It's my problem for not liking it as much as I should. After I've snapped at SeeU today, I really don't think I can get up the courage to hand her a heart or whatever tomorrow…"

"There's this old Chinese proverb that says, 'Better to drink the weak tea of a friend than the sweet wine of an enemy.'"

"But I don't have an enemy."

"Stop feeding yourself with excuses, Iroha," Tianyi said gently. "I may be terrible at being a friend, but I know how to mend a ravaged friendship when I see one. It's only a little tear in the fabric, but don't ignore it. Now I sound like a wise woman… Still. The enemy is in yourself."

Iroha turned to stare at Tianyi. "You're confusing me."

Tianyi rolled her eyes. "I always do. It's my habit. Don't mind it. I can't get my point across without being extravagant."

"So you say." Iroha kept her eyes on Tianyi's hands as they worked.

"Now why don't you go?" Tianyi said. "The bell's going to ring any minute."

"Why aren't you going, either?"

"My next period is study hall. I can spend my time here." She raised her head, smiling brightly.

"Oh. Okay. Thanks for the talk." Iroha nodded appreciatively, took her bag again and walked off to her Language Arts class.

-/-

Another torrent of students came to buy carnations. It had been another successful sale that day.

When Iroha walked out of class, her knees couldn't help but knock together in anticipation. In math class, Iroha hardly saw SeeU, nor did she talk to her, due to a pop quiz that was about fifty questions long and took up the entire period. And of course she almost tried to avoid SeeU when rushing to Student Council. Now Iroha wondered if SeeU had been waiting for her, like always.

Iroha knew she should apologize, but really, it was in her to make things worse. She wasn't good at admitting she was wrong. It cut to her pride.

SeeU was there.

"Hi, SeeU," Iroha said, forcing her mouth to form the words. SeeU looked up and nodded.

"I'll be staying here for a while. You can go on without me."

The moments passed by slowly, stretching like road tar softened by the sun. Every loud clang her bicycle made, Iroha winced. SeeU paid no mind, her pen moving quickly over her notebook paper.

"Oh," Iroha said. Adrenaline was making her legs feel weak as she got onto her bike. "If something's wrong, tell me, would you?" She said it none too kindly.

SeeU looked up, biting her lip. And then she looked away.

"…Yeah," Iroha said, although her heart was beating furiously, screaming at her to say sorry. _Why is it so hard to get out the words?_ "See you tomorrow, SeeU."

"Bye, Iroha."

-/-

Only at home did Iroha realize that SeeU used her real name, not "Ironeko." And she said "bye".

_And now I just got an idea for a Valentine._

She was feeling bad already. If this wouldn't heal, then nothing would.

"_The enemy is in yourself…"_

Luo Tianyi's words were like those of a gypsy's. They floated back at her.

Iroha took a fresh piece of white cloth, and as she sewed, her stitches formed themselves into the words she had to say.

* * *

*******A/N**:_ Apparently FanFiction has gone under some new editing, for when I tried to do the line break, it took up an entire paragraph's space, so I had to press enter twice. Either that, or it's just a glitch.**  
**I realise that this chapter might not be the best I could have offered. I don't know whether the reference to Pottermore is legal or not.**  
**Oh; and, to add,_** personally, I'd say that the relationship between Iroha and SeeU is friendship and nothing more, but you can interpret it your way. _No shoujo ai was intended_, but then, I'm not expecting you to think they're completely "on their own" either. There is a possibility that, now that I look at it, Iroha and SeeU's friendship _(especially with their attitudes toward each other, and their own personalities)_ might blossom into love later.  
**_Thank you for reading; reviews are appreciated. A thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter as well.**  
**_

_~Unyielding Wish_


	3. hearts and scribbles - three

**Hearts and Scribbles  
[Three]**

.

_Love is not all: It is not meat nor drink  
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain,  
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink  
and rise and sink and rise and sink again.  
Love cannot fill the thickened lung with breath  
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;  
Yet many a man is making friends with death  
even as I speak, for lack of love alone._

_It well may be that in a difficult hour,  
pinned down by need and moaning for release  
or nagged by want past resolutions power,  
I might be driven to sell you love for peace,  
Or trade the memory of this night for food.  
It may well be. I do not think I would._ – Edna St. Vincent Millay

**-/-**

Iroha was never quite proficient at crocheting; not even close. She could sew fairly well, but that was the extent of her needlework. So her work was horrendous, up to the point that her mother, Ia, took one look at Iroha's pitiful, knotted piece of lacy cloth, and decided to sit down and help the girl. Iroha sewed the lace onto a white cloth cutout, with the pink letters carefully embroidered on it:

_I owe you an apology…_

Iroha bit her lip in concentration as she picked off the thread that made up the last period in the ellipse. Then she set the cutout aside and began on another one.

…_but, misunderstandings aside, I hope we can still be friends._

-/-

Iroha had to get to Bokaroido High at directly 8:00 in the morning, for the last carnation sale took place from that time to eight-twenty-five, where sales stopped and the Student Council members would clean up and hurry with it, for class began at eight-thirty. So Iroha couldn't meet SeeU at the fork anyway.

She was biting her lip and fingering her cutout—she had sewed the two cutouts together, back-to-back—as she locked her bicycle and headed onto the area where the carnations would be selling. The carnations cost seventy-five cents today, as most of them were at their wilting stage and it was already Valentine's Day. There might be some last-minute buyers; who knew?

Iroha wasn't sure if SeeU would come up to her and talk to her as if nothing had happened, or if SeeU would act hurt, or if SeeU would ignore her altogether.

_Ample time for getting mad, _Iroha thought sarcastically. Iroha had added a little card to the Valentine, reading,

"_Happy Valentine's Day!"_

even though she didn't quite feel like saying it out loud. Then, quickly terminating her thoughts, she pasted a smile on her face as some random senior came by, breathless, shoving a handful of money in her face and telling her that he wanted one of those pink carnations.

"That'd be seventy-five cents, sir," Iroha said, picking the best pink carnation she could find and presenting it to him.

The senior grumbled about it, but counted out three quarters and left with the pink carnation.

Just like that, Iroha sat through a full stretch of twenty-five minutes. It was almost a relief to her when her watch beeped, and she got up to pack up. Luo Tianyi nodded pointedly at her when she passed by, and Miki smiled at Iroha, sympathy still apparent in her eyes.

Iroha didn't want Miki's pity—Miki somehow knew everything around here, even if Tianyi hadn't told her. But at the moment, she didn't mind… or didn't care. Class would start in five minutes, and Iroha would die if she didn't get to Miss Sakine's homeroom-class-thingy on time. Meiko was known to be scary to the latecomers.

And so she found herself sitting in her seat. In homeroom, Iroha was in front of SeeU, so she didn't have to look back and see SeeU. And she didn't. Iroha had to admit, she was ashamed to feel that way, but her pride was unbending.

Pride was a fickle thing, it was.

-/-

The day slipped by quickly and quietly. In art class, which they happened to have that day, there was a small celebration instead of a new art assignment. Of course, nobody brought Valentines for each other, so the party didn't last very long as the students scarfed down their cookies and drank the juice. But other than that, that was the only difference that set out Valentine's Day from the rest.

After a Student Council meeting after school, which really was not very long now that the sales were finished, Iroha walked out to the bicycle racks.

Her heart began to drum and leap in her chest again. There hadn't been a lot of days when SeeU didn't wait for her, certainly not over a petty squabble. Still… things were changing. They were getting older. Iroha's words probably hurt SeeU.

And then Iroha was thinking, and not noticing the things around her, until she—

"SeeU? Why are you here?"

The words came out of Iroha's mouth faster than she could stop them. _Why oh why oh why must I always push an argument further than it already_—

"I didn't mean that!" Iroha suddenly shouted.

"Er, yeah," SeeU said.

What was that supposed to mean?

"Anyway…" Why was this so hard? Iroha fumbled about in her pockets, and her bag, while SeeU looked on. Scratch that. SeeU was busy putting things into her backpack. Finally Iroha's fingers brushed the heart that she made for SeeU. Iroha held it behind herself, and the moments that passed were silent, and so awkward, that Iroha wished either she or SeeU could actually say something to break the lull in the conversation.

"Yeah?" SeeU finally said.

"So um like"—Iroha whipped out the lacy heart—"can we… make up?" she added more softly.

SeeU's immediate reaction was, "Iroha! That must have taken forever to make!"

"My mom helped with the crocheting of the lace, but I sewed the rest," Iroha admitted.

"And here I'm feeling bad about _my_ Valentine…" continued SeeU.

"What?" Iroha cried.

"_What_?" SeeU echoed.

"You—have a Valentine for me?"

"…This is starting to sound clichéd, but… of course… Did you think I'd forget it?" SeeU grinned.

Iroha gaped down at the white carnation that SeeU handed to her. "But—I was there the entire time—you didn't—"

"I know. Miki gave me it for free yesterday. She said that you were acting a little odd, and it was something about a wrecked friendship, and so she hoped the carnation would make us both feel better. Also, Tianyi came along and said that I should really talk to you, and that you would probably apologize, so…" And then SeeU frowned. "I have my own Valentine for you, except I left it at home."

"Oh—that's okay," Iroha said mildly. After apologizing SeeU, a huge weight seemed to have floated away with the breeze. Who knew that Miki and Tianyi could be useful in friendships when neither were the best company? "Yeah. Uh… are you going to take it?"

SeeU accepted the Valentine, and folded it carefully, sliding it into her coat pocket. Then she suggested, "Race you?"

"To the fork in the road." Iroha grinned. "I won't lose this time."

* * *

*******A/N**: _And so this brings the story to a conclusion. I debated with myself over the ending and its style for quite a long time, but I managed to agree with myself... I'm still not particularly happy about it, but I'm coming along. So... Thanks to all that favorited, followed, and/or reviewed! :)_

_~ Unyielding Wish_


End file.
